The Erotic Essay

Now of the powers residing in human beings we shall find that intelligence leads all the rest and that philosophy alone is capable of educating this rightly and training it. In this study I think you ought to participate, and not balk at or flee from the labors involved in it, reflecting that through idleness and indolence even quite superficial things become difficult, while through persistence and diligence none of the worthwhile things is unattainable,

and that of all things the most irrational is to be ambitious for wealth, bodily strength, and such things, and for their sakes to submit to many hardships, all of which prizes are perishable and usually slaves to intelligence, but not to aim at the improvement of the mind, which has supervision over all other powers, abides continually with those who possess it, and guides the whole life.[*](The oldest of the Greek-letter fraternities in the universities of the U.S. (1776), ΦΒΚ, took its name from φιλοσοφία βίου κυβερνήτης.)

And yet, although it is a fine thing to be admired among high-minded people even on account of fortuitous success, it is much finer through care bestowed upon one’s self to gain a share in all the accomplishments that are esteemed; for often it has fallen to the lot of vulgar men to share in the former but none have a part in the latter except those who excel in real manliness.

However, touching the subject of philosophy, some future occasion will afford me more suitable opportunities to review carefully the particulars, but the outlines of it nothing will prevent me from running over at once. This one point, therefore, you must grasp clearly at the outset, that all education consists in understanding something and then putting it into practice,[*](This idea recurs in Dem. 61.41 and Dem. 61.47.) and this is even more true of philosophy than of any other studies, for the synthesis of learning and practice is likely to be more perfect in proportion as the instructors are more clear on this point.

And yet, since intelligence commands the province of speaking and deliberating, and philosophy confers facility in each of these, what reason can there be why we should refuse to get a firm grasp of this study, through which we shall become masters of both alike? Because life may then too be expected to make a great advance for us when we reach out for the things of supreme importance and find ourselves able to secure by rule and precept such as can be taught and the rest by practice and habituation.

It certainly is not permissible to make the assertion that it is not through acquired knowledge that we surpass one another in sound judgement; for, speaking generally, all natural ability is improved by the addition of the appropriate education,[*](Blass compares Isoc. 15.189-192, with which may be compared in turn Cicero Pro Archia 7.15.) and this is especially true of talents which at the outset are inherently superior to the rest, because the one kind is capable only of improving upon itself while the other may also surpass the rest.